(4 Apr 2000) English/Nat
More than 800 white owned farms in Zimbabwe have been invaded by black squatters since early February.
The invasions have led to street fights with anti-Mugabe demonstrators.
The man who is the driving force behind these invasions is Dr. Chenjerai Hitler Hunzvi, the leader of a group of hardline war veterans who believe they are reclaiming land that belongs to them.
Invading a white-owned farm is a joyous occasion for these people.
Many of them are war veterans, who fought the colonial bush war that led to Zimbabwe's independence in 1980.
Dr. Chenjerai Hitler Hunzvi has come to join the celebration.
He fought to liberate the former British colony in 1965 at the age of 16 and was detained by the then Rhodesian police several times.
Years later, after training to be a physician in Poland in 1980, Dr. Hunzvi returned to his homeland and in 1991, he became the leader of the war veteran association.
Dr. Hunzvi says the invaders are not greedy, they are just claiming land that belongs to them.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"I don't call it land-grabbing. We are taking back our land. If we fought for this country then we fought to free our land. We cannot be foreigners in our own land. We cannot let the land be run by those settlers who came to settle here, who came to grab. They are the real grabbers of our land and we are saying the land must go back to the peoples of Zimbabwe."
SUPER CAPTION: Dr. Chenjerai Hitler Hunzvi, leader of the War Veterans Association
The former bush war guerrilla, whose middle name is indeed Hitler, insists he's not a racist.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"I am not against the white man. I am against a system. For example the system in this country is the economy being dominated by the white man and that white man doesn't want to share the goods of this country with other people."
SUPER CAPTION: Dr. Chenjerai Hitler HUNZVI, leader of the War Veterans Association
Dr. Hunzvi's war veterans strongly support Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe and last month they threatened to start a new civil war if Mugabe doesn't win the upcoming general elections.
Mugabe has said the invasions of white-owned farms is a justifiable political protest against people whose ancestors occupied the land in colonial times without paying for it.
The offices of the war veterans association are located in the same building as the headquarters of Mugabe's party, ZANU PF.
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